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Tue Jul 31, 2007

Here is how stupid I can be: I realized, just after I posted the other day, that “sunsick” was in fact “sick”. Flu. There are a few indicators with me when I am truly sick. Skipping a sushi dinner with out-of-town friends because I’d rather stay in bed is one of them.

It took me a couple of days to realize because sailing is one of those sports where you carry your own weight. It’s not just a “show up and do it” sport, it’s a do it when you’re injured, do it when you feel demoralized, stay after and help do the work putting the boat away sport. This past week, our new boat was home to 2 very experienced sailors (Elliott being one of those) and one hot-shot kid. And me. Being the least experienced and the only female, I was determined not to show weakness any more than necessary, which apparently included failing to recognize that the body aches, headache and general malaise I was feeling were due to anything but me being the weakest physically on the boat.

Now that Elliott is down for the count with the same thing, he’s a bit surprised that I was actually functional crew for the last 2 days of that week. I’ve lost my voice, which is one thing that always seems to happen on the tail end of illness. It’s not totally gone, I just sound like a chainsmoker, when in fact I am a non-smoker. (an aside: this means when I am catching up tomorrow, it will be with email and instant messaging, not phone.)

I’m sitting here now enjoying a stellar sunset. It’s only this time of year when we get the sunsets that start on the horizon as a deep apricot, turning to lighter apricot, then lemon yellow, pale blue, turquoise. The kind of sunset that makes you want to buy too many shades of paint, in a lame attempt (for a non-artist anyhow) to recreate it. Instead, I’ll sit here in bed and appreciate what I could never adequately capture with words or paint brush.